Four wind roses, c. 1475

Image of four wind roses

One of our most striking items, this collection of four wind charts is an early predecessor to the modern compass rose; but where the latter shows the cardinal directions, this manuscript uses the winds. This item is unique in UBC’s manuscript collection because it is multilingual: the two charts on the right are Latin, but the others were written in a lingua franca used by Mediterranean sailors (top left) and in medieval Dutch (bottom left). We cannot be sure where it was made or pinpoint its date of publication beyond sometime in the latter fifteenth century.

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